Statement by President Clinton on Signing of Treasury Postal
Service and General Government Appropriations Act

Last night I signed into law H.R. 2020, the "Treasury, Postal
Service, and General Government Appropriations Act, 1996."

The Act provides a total of $11.3 billion in discretionary budget
authority for various programs in the Department of the Treasury, the
U.S. Postal Service, the General Services Administration, the Office of
Personnel Management, the Executive Office of the President, and several
smaller agencies. With this legislation enacted into law, over 140,000
furloughed employees were able to go back to work.

I am pleased that a provision contained in an earlier version of the
bill, which would have limited the political advocacy rights of
non-profit organizations that receive Federal funding, was removed from
the bill. This unacceptable provision would have presented a broad
attack on the exercise of fundamental rights protected by the First
Amendment.

Regrettably, the Congress has not funded the Internal Revenue Service
at a sufficient level to ensure the kind of service that the taxpayers
deserve. I am disappointed that the Congress eliminated the FY 1995
funding of $405 million for the compliance initiative as it creates
serious risks to the levels of tax compliance. At the very least, this
action is expected to result in the loss of additional revenue over the
next five years. Major compliance cuts send the wrong signal and reward
tax cheats. The Internal Revenue Service's FY 1996 funding level is not
consistent with the efforts of the Administration and the Congress to
balance the Federal budget.

Again, I urge the Congress to meet its responsibilities by sending me
the remaining regular FY 1996 appropriations bills in acceptable form.